Joe Biden plagiarized Bobby Kennedy. Does integrity matter to liberals?

It's not the first time for "the smartest man in the world" to rip off somebody else's words.

Kinnock controversyMajor controversy beset Biden's candidacy, beginning on September 12, 1987 with high-profile articles in The New York Times and The Des Moines Register.[19] Biden was accused of plagiarizing a speech by Neil Kinnock, then-leader of the British Labour Party.[20] Kinnock’s speech included the lines:

“ Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? [Then pointing to his wife in the audience] Why is Glenys the first woman in her family in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Was it because all our predecessors were thick?
”

While Biden’s speech included the lines:

“ I started thinking as I was coming over here, why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university? [Then pointing to his wife in the audience] Why is it that my wife who is sitting out there in the audience is the first in her family to ever go to college? Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright? Is it because I'm the first Biden in a thousand generations to get a college and a graduate degree that I was smarter than the rest?
”

Though Biden had cited Kinnock as the source for the formulation many times before, he made no reference to the original source at the August 23 Democratic debate at the Iowa State Fair being reported on[21] or in another appearance.[22] While political speeches often appropriated ideas and language from each other, Biden's use came under more scrutiny because he somewhat distorted his own family's background in order to match Kinnock's.[15][22]

Following the Kinnock attention, reports came from the San Jose Mercury News of Biden reusing without credit pieces of speeches from Hubert H. Humphrey and Robert F. Kennedy.[23] In the Kennedy case – which got the greater attention, since there was film footage of both versions that television news programs could play side-by-side – Pat Caddell stated that the reuse without credit was his own fault, and that he had never informed Biden of the source of the material.[23]

After Biden withdrew from the race, it was learned that he had indeed correctly credited Kinnock on other occasions. But in the Iowa speech that was recorded and distributed to reporters (with a parallel video of Kinnock) by aides to Michael Dukakis, the eventual nominee, he failed to do so. Dukakis, who disowned any knowledge of the Kinnock video, fired John Sasso, his campaign manager and long-time Chief of Staff, but Biden's campaign could not recover.[15][24][25]